Number to double after all the districts complete registration

Kathmandu, April 30:

The government has identified 18,924 internally displaced people (IDPs) as of now. It has also recognised 6,923 families as internally displaced due to the 11-year-old Maoist conflict.

In 26 districts, only the number of internally displaced families are known and their members are yet to be identified.

The number of IDPs is expected to double after the CDO offices complete their registration in all the 75 districts. The government has not set any deadline for the registration of IDPs.

“We have received the data of 18,924 IDPs, which will be sent to the concerned ministry within a day or two,” said a Section Officer at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA). The new entry of the IDPs will also be given to the newly established Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (MoPR), which is responsible for implementing relief programmes meant for the IDPs.

A total of 3,010 internally displaced families are in the current list of MoHA for providing “immediate relief” of Rs 5000 each. “The total sum the government has proposed for this is Rs 15,050,000. The proposal has been sent to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), which will release the amount soon,” an official at the MoHA said.

“Rs 300 to Rs 1,000 as transport fare for each IDP for returning home; Rs 60 as daily allowance until he/she is not properly resettled; Rs 25,000 as loan for reconstruction or renovation of their house; and seeds for returning to agriculture are in the list of government as an immediate relief to be provided,” the Section Officer told this daily.

For implementing the National Policy, 2007 related to IDPs, the government has already enforced a directive. The government has planned to implement programmes for IDPs from the Peace Trust Fund. The MoHA and MoPR have also closely worked with other line ministries for developing long-term programmes.

Officials of the Ministry of Industry, Women and Children, Local Development, Health, Education, and Forest met early this month and finalised programmes for the IDPs to be incorporated in their annual plans. “The programmes have been approved, and already sent to the Ministry of Finance and the National Planning Commission for their endorsement and allocation of budget,” said the officer at MoHA.